50+ Essential Mobile SEO Resources

Mobile search experts to follow, publications to read, tools to use and mobile marketing resources at your fingertips.

It occurred to me as I was making my personal site responsive and adding recommended resources that I’ve been doing this column for over five years and have yet to share with you readers a comprehensive list of the mobile SEO resources I recommend. This month, I’d like to right that wrong by citing the people, publications and tools that I find essential for mobile SEO, all in one place.

People

Pierre Far– Pierre said at one point that he wants to be the Matt Cutts of mobile search, and along with Maile Ohye (and sometimes even Matt Cutts), that’s the role he plays at Google. All of these people have been instrumental in clearing up the murky world of mobile SEO in recent years.

Michael Martin – Michael is an SEO Manager for Covario and a champion of dynamic serving. Michael has been speaking on panels with me and the others on this list on mobile SEO for years, and for good reason. He also writes frequently on mobile SEO in various publications, including Marketing Land.

Jason Spero – Jason is the head of performance media at Google, and the head of Global Mobile Sales and Strategy there since 2012. He’s the author of The Mobile Playbook, which contains a lot of Google’s ideas about mobility and business.

Greg Sterling – Greg is the first to say he’s not an expert on mobile SEO, but like Barry he has done more to make it visible to the general SEO and mobile community that most. He also reports at the cutting edge of mobile search, giving mobile SEOs an idea of what’s coming.

BrightEdge Mobile Share 2014 – The most recent mobile share report has a lot of great info on what’s working for mobile SEO today. Spoiler alert: It’s not just responsive web design. Requires contact information to download the entire report.

Google will never show Mobile Insider and Mobile Marketer for the query [mobile SEO], as both publications are relevant to more than just SEO and focus on mobile marketing in general; but both publications are essential for understanding how brands are making their mobile experiences uniquely valuable to consumers, which is really at the heart of SEO.

Mobile Search Engine Optimization Tools

General Mobile SEO Tools

Bright Edge – Includes smartphone and tablet rankings, as well as standard Bright Edge reporting for mobile search results.

Search Metrics – Includes traffic and rankings for smartphone and tablet.

Mobile Moxie – Includes a whole suite of tools, including emulators, page speed tools and a script generator for proper mobile redirects. Free 30 day trial.

User Agent Switcher/Emulators

User Agent Switcher for Chrome – There are various user agent switchers for Chrome, but this one gives the user a lot of flexibility. Useful for simulating smartphone or tablet search results from a desktop.

User Agent Switcher for Firefox – A good general user agent switcher for Firefox. Like the Chrome user agent switcher it gives the user a lot of flexibility, allowing her to enter user agents.

Prism – Emulators from MobilForge allow you to see what your content will look like on devices without buying the devices.

Mobile Keyword Research Tools

Google Keyword Planner – As I mentioned in my column the pasttwo months, Google Keyword Planner now has great charts for helping you determine which keywords are more likely to be searched from smartphones and tablets. Requires free AdWords login to use.

Bing Ads Intelligence – Using Bing Ads Intelligence within Excel is still the only way to get actual search volume numbers by device that I know of, since Google sunsetted the Keyword Tool.

Mobile Site Speed, Usability & Accessibility Testing

All of these are great sites for improving the usability of your mobile site, including site speed, which has a direct impact on search results.

It’s unlikely that this page will be regularly updated (too often) with new resources, but if you’d like to make others aware of a site I’ve neglected to mention, contact me using the resources on my author page. If I like the site I will add it to my regularly updated mobile SEO resources page here.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Bryson Meunier is the SEO Director at Vivid Seats, is an SEO veteran with more than 14 years experience both agency and in-house, and is a thought leader in permission marketing as a columnist and a frequent speaker on SEO and mobile marketing.